by 88Nine

Listen: To a certain kind of nerd, the original four pillars of hip hop come without thinking: Emceeing, Deejaying, Breaking, and Graffiti Writing. However, as hip hop has aged (it's at least 30 years old) and reached larger audiences, music has become the dominant voice of the culture. For youth who are half the age of hip hop, the sound of hip hop is second nature.

And while writing lyrics can be done by anybody with a pad of paper and a pen, the production and DJing side of hip hop is not easily accessible to most youth. The equipment, increasingly based in computer and software technology, is prohibitively expensive. In this piece, Sarah shows us how True Skool puts music-making tools at the fingertips of willing and excited youth: In the middle of my evening at True Skool, Romke de Haan came out of nowhere. A longtime friend of the station (he's designing our iPhone App that's coming soon!), he's also on the Board of Directors at True Skool and recently became a music instructor (you can hear him teaching the two young ladies). A total renaissance man.

Instructor Danny! (Photo by Sarah Patterson's iPhone)

-More! First, Sarah introduces how True Skool approaches music and why it fits into their overall project: -The two young ladies getting a turntable lesson are featured in the piece, but I couldn't feature a few of their thoughts I really liked: -The short interview with Levon, who started off the piece, unedited and uncut. A really interesting and sharp kid: